Joe L

Can a game experience allow kids to explore physics in a more fun, playful way? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj9VG_OBCwg&feature=youtu.be Vector Racer Paulo Ribeiro, Dora Jiang, Jingyi Lin and Ru Xu (MA students at Teachers College, Columbia University in the Design and Development of Digital Games program) created a prototype of Vector Racer -- an exciting, hands-on way to learn physics in a fun and endogenous way. Students create their own custom vehicles and learn physics concepts like velocity, acceleration, gravity while building and racing vehicles.

There are several events around the world on games. These vary widely in terms of size and focus. Some are more for academics to share their research; others are better suited for educators. Still other conferences are trade shows where designers and merchants can check out the latest games. A huge list of game-related events and conferences can be found at GameConfs.com. Academic DiGRA - DiGRA is the "association for academics and professionals who research digital games and associated phenomena." Founded in 2003, it is one of the larger game research communities. It features an annual conference where researchers and designers can present their work. Games for Change Festival - Held annually in New York City, Games for Change Festival brings together game developers, businesses, nonprofits and educators. "Discover how…

In recent years, many in the interaction design and user experience (UX) design fields have questioned the ethics of dark patterns, defined as a user interface or design feature that has been carefully crafted to deceive users into doing things they may not want to do, such as buy an extra item or give personal details to software company. I argue that many games are also not designed to be ethical or beneficial to the player. For instance, the use of dark patterns in the design of certain games (or gamification-based apps) may lead to various negative effects, such as wasting time; or using slot-machine like elements (e.g., variable ratio rewards) to carefully addict players and then require them to pay money to continue playing. Some researchers have explored dark…

Increasingly, persuasive games have been created that depict an argument or point of view on serious issues such as poverty, politics, equality or business ethics. How can these games be created to be effective in delivering a persuasive message, taking the psychology of polarization in mind? A Embedded Design Model Geoff Kaufman (faculty at Carnegie Mellon University), Mary Flanagan (faculty at Dartmouth University), and Max Seidman (game designer) have published research on how to most effectively embed persuasive messages in games. In their research, they have determined that "serious issues in a literal, explicit fashion are far less likely to succeed in changing attitudes or behaviors than are games that take the more 'stealthy' approach of embedding persuasive messages within a game’s content or context." (Kaufman et al, 2015). Their…

Persuasive Games can be defined as an interactive experience that intends to make arguments and expressive statements about one or more topics. Persuasive games are unique compared to books or movies in that they use interactive experiences and processes to convey their key arguments. Ian Bogost, Professor of Literature, Media, and Communication and Interactive Computing in the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology, popularized the idea of Persuasive Games along with the term procedural rhetoric. Procedural rhetoric can be defined as using processes persuasively (compared to using oratory or images persuasively). Digital games are useful in allowing players to experience processes in a firsthand manner. These kinds of games can often explore social or political issues, for educational purposes, or be used as an advertisement (or dis-advertisement) for a business…

Hunicke, LeBlanc and Zubek published a useful framework for analyzing games. Mechanics are the components and rules of the game. It includes the verbs or "actions" that players are allowed to do in the game. It also includes algorithms and data structures set up within the game.Dynamics are what happens once the mechanics are put in place and players are playing the game. In other words, it is the run-time behavior of the game mechanics and rules that are set up.Aesthetics are the emotional responses targeted in the player(s). Hunicke, Robin & Leblanc, Marc & Zubek, Robert. (2004). MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research. AAAI Workshop - Technical Report.